Blockchains provide for a decentralized and independently verifiable storage mechanism for data. While initially developed for use with financial transactions using a cryptographic currency, additional implementations for blockchains have been developed that take advantage of the decentralized nature of the blockchain as well as the ability for the blockchain to be both immutable and independently verifiable. One such additional implementation is the use for a blockchain to provide a legal record where documents can be stored that are verifiable and tied to a specific timestamp.
One of the benefits of the blockchain is it can serve as an immutable ledger that stores a record for every transaction ever conducted via that blockchain. As such, a blockchain may store thousands, millions, or even billions of transaction records over time in a vast number of different blocks. However, this may cause a difficulty for any new node that wants to participate in the blockchain. In such instances, a blockchain may contain thousands, millions, or billions of blocks, each of which must be verified by the new node prior to the generation and addition of new blocks to the blockchain. The verification of such a large number of blocks may take a significant amount of time, during which new blocks may be added to the blockchain, further delaying the ability for the new node to participate.
Thus, there is a need for a technical solution to increase the speed at which a blockchain may be navigated for verification thereof, which can thereby reduce the time required for a new node to begin participating in the blockchain.